Frenchman Adrien van Beveren took the lead on Thursday at the Dakar in the first part of the 6th stage, known as “48 hours” and spread over two days, while American Ricky Brabec is still virtual leader overall.
At the last full timing point before the race was suspended at 4:00 p.m., as planned, van Beveren was ahead of his Honda teammate Brabec by 1'21. Australian Toby Price was third at 1’49.
In the virtual general, Brabec is ahead of the Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero Motorsports) by 2'48, and the Chilean Jose Cornejo (Honda) by 6'37.
Van Beveren is closing in, 13'02 behind the leader, in fourth position.
Pablo Quintanilla, winner of Wednesday's stage, was the unlucky one of the day. He ran out of fuel about ten kilometers from the first refueling point, and lost almost an hour and a half, the time it took to be repaired.
The drivers at the front of the race have already covered 513 km, and they only have about a hundred left to complete on Friday morning to complete this marathon stage, after having slept "roughly" in the tent, without assistance or communication possible.